FADA Radio Receiver From 1937 Electronic Restoration! [Repair] 

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There is something VERY Zen about watching Dr Carlson save the planet by restoring one radio receiver at a time.

You have a very rare gift in that you get people who have no idea what you are talking about to watch to the end and enjoy your knowledge

Mr Carlson needs more diagnostic gear .. LOL. I really appreciate the in depth discussion in all your vids.

Wow, Paul you are fantastic! That radio realignment was better than the 1938 factory version. I was born in 1945 and my father came back from WWII to learn electronics radio and tv repair in the early 1950’s, mostly self taught, and made a living doing so and supported our family. He tried to teach me,as well, but I wasn’t interested! I always knew he had the “touch” for electronics and the passion too but never really appreciated it. Watching you brings my young experiences with my father back very clearly and makes me more aware how talented a man he was, as you are also! Thank You Very Much! PS- Even tho I didn’t follow my father in the electronics field, I did succeed in flying very technical airplanes worldwide for the USAF and United Airlines for 35 years and developed a deep appreciation for your talent and skills! God Blessed You and it’s great that you are passing that on to many others. Again, thanks much.

Back in the mid-1930s my mom remembers the first radio my grandfather brought home. She said she remembers the whole family would stare at it as it played like people do today at a television. Then in 1942 my moms two older brothers were drafted into the military and the radio became a lifeline of knowledge about the war. You can’t help but wonder how the vintage radio like this may have played as a lifeline to somebody’s family back then. As always I thoroughly enjoyed your video Paul. And I always look forward to the next one.

I love❤ these 1930’s restorations 😊

Mr Carlson your FADA RADIO RECEIVER 2 bands Broadcast band and ham band from 1937 is cool

I have to say that if you are serious about learning electronics, Mr Carlson's Lab is like having a teacher speak directly to you. Fantastic and easy to understand his explanations on the why and how of doing things, just great.

Awesome job! 👍 Wish I knew a tenth lf what Mr. C. knows. Just amazing.

Mrister Carlsons lab you are good at restoring vintage shortwave receivers and alignment of vintage shortwave receivers with ssb my friend 😅😅😅

They say that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery - and you Mr Carlson have got me at it too!! I have recapped, repaired and aligned one 1948 radio. Two more to go dating to the early 1950s. Have recapped and repaired a 1962 Cossor 1099 oscilloscope, and am building an accessory device for it to add a normal Y attenuator / amplifier, a sig genny, and a frequency meter switched between X, Y and genny. There is much more, but no need to list here. Using vintage to fix vintage is fun !

My comments to show support for your Videos are as follows. -Big Thumbs Up

Imagine Orson Welles - War of the Worlds performance, from 1938, being broadcast on this set!

Last summer while vacationing in Chautauqua New York, I picked up a couple of 1940 era radios from an antique shop. One was a GLF F-770. It's an am-fm-phono type. After doing a little research it seems it was privately produced for the local farmers and merchants of western New York area. GLF stands for Grange League Federation. I love the history behind these old finds. Been working with electronics for about 40 years. This will be my first "old time radio" restore. Thanks to Mr. Carlson I brought it up slowly with the variac, isolation transformer, and dim bulb tester. I found out that the transformer was shorted. Lucky enough to find a NOS transformer. It works! Now for the caps. This will be a fun restore. Thanks for sharing your knowledge with us Mr. C.

I was about to go out shopping till my phone went ping telling me you had uploaded a video, guess shopping can wait. Really enjoy your videos and have learnt a great deal about electronics since I have been subscribed to your channel. Thank you and have a good day from Liverpool England

Greetings from Europe/Serbia, every restoration You make is a quite unique lesson from old electronics. Tube electronics is my hobby, I'm a MD, radiologist, and this old stuff are helping me to overcome hard hospital work, and to "charge" my own batteries. Just as an idea, it will be so interesting for me, and for all Yours subscribers I suppose, if You restore some european radios. European, especially German radios, have such a different construction concept than American, sometimes it's challenge to even start restoration, but they are sound so great, especially Grundig or Telefunken. Thanks for such a nice and useful advices and recommendations! Greetings, Peter.

Everytime boredom comes knocking of late I find myself tuning into another Mr. Carlson's lab video and presto... I get recharged and start contemplating my next restoration. Of late my wife just found a Silvertone 4565 tabletop at a garage sale for a whopping $5.00 and though it isn't next in line it'll be one I hope to finish within the next calendar year. First I have to finish an RCA 812 push pull console with a bad output transformer problem. ....Thanks Sir, for all your excellent vids...enjoy them all.

The SUPREME VEDOLYZER? YES! I'm such a fan... Thanks Paul! Fun to watch!

I've never liked tube gear. Had a Heathkit GR-54, switched to a solid-state Yaesu FRG7 and never looked back. Never had any tube ham gear. That said, I just love these videos! The sheer simplicity of these radios, and how well they work even 80 years later, makes me think maybe I've been missing out.

Hello Paul, I've been doing "catch up" on all of your videos. I've been thinking about this every time that you do a restoration on a receiver with S.W. You have a lot of space in the chassis after changing out those big old caps for the modern stuff. How about building a small BFO circuit with the adjustment knob on the back of the chassis to preserve the classic appearance while being able to access the high percentage of SSB signals available on those bands. In any case, I have really enjoyed seeing some of the stuff that I remember from when I was a teenager with a old scope and signal generator. I really like your teaching style. People with a very basic understanding of electronics can learn more without feeling that it's all over their heads. Thanks again, for all the great videos. I've relearned some things that I forgot sixty years ago. Keep it up!

Thxsomuch mr carlson💥Awesome restoration video💥🙏💥

I used to have that signal generator, and I still own the same variac as you. I first started messing with vintage radios when I bought a batch of broken AA5 tabletop sets at an auction for next to nothing. Surprisingly, I never had an accident or shock from one of those dangerous radios, and got a good many working. Back then, my "restorations" were simply replace the defective components and sometimes tune up the IF, and I still love those old tube radios! Real radios glow in the dark. Keep them singing!

I wonder, how many of President Roosevelt's 'Fireside Chats', were broadcast through this radio in real time. And...how many Beatles tunes, were played through this radio, in real time. Wouldn't it be cool...if they had the technology back then, for the radio, to record every broadcast played on the radio through the years, so that one could listen to its history today? Fantastic looking radio. Very much enjoyed viewing this.

Mrister Carlsons lab your vintage Fada tube shortwave table top receiver from 1937 is awesome my friend 😅😅😅

Nice Restore, just like new! I do enjoy your videos, I’ve been a Ham since 1965. Thanks for the show

Just got back at 9:00 and heard about the buzz we all get to have. Watching these old beauties come back to life is buzz enough for me.

I can't even imagine where you found some of this vintage test equipment from.

I’ve always loved those old vacuum tube radios.

Mr Carlson takes me back to my adolescence, as to when I had a lot of old (not working) TV's and radio's! Oh! Such fun it was! - Totally enthralling! I wanted to be a TV and Radio repair person when I was 14 years old! (1964) If I had have had Mr Carlson 'teaching me' I'm sure I would have been successful!

Was in 1937 100% Now in 2020 200% Great job!

Pretty awesome. Thanks for the video. What a treasure Mr. Carlson and this channel are for us. I'm sometimes not a big fan of modern tech, but in this case it's sure nice to have it - so we can have these awesome videos available to us.

Awesome restoration Paul. Good to see the Vedolyzer performing. Thanks for sharing.

My uncle had an old photograph with a non-polarized line cord. LOL fun times!

Nicely done Paul. That was a great video.

Fantastic to follow the work! Inspiring!

An _amazing_ restoration and yes, those RF engineers really knew what they were doing. Thanks so much for this.

Straight from Brazil. My dear friend Mr Carlson's, greetings! I'm a fan of your videos and teachings, I've been working with electronics for about 40 years and always learn a little more from you here on the channel. Please continue this, as many and many others have learned more and more from an experienced master like you. I wish you much Peace, Health and Prosperity!

I'm big fan of this measurement equipment

What a beautiful little Art Deco gem! And it deserved your gentle touch.

I started working in a radio/TV shop at 14. I'm 74 right now. There were almost no solid state devices. The fear of tube circuits astounds me. I ended up as Chief Engineer for AM//FM broadcast Stations and am retired from 2 Universities. I did re-tune an FM transmitter with 10KV on the plate. I got the Ip up to 5 A just to see if the tube could do it. I have rewired 3 phase transformer primaries running either 240VAC closed delta OR 208 VAC 4 wire. I've even swapped 2000 pound 3 phase HV transformers between different transmitters. With the right precautions and operating techniques it is safe to work on almost any equipment. It is important that one hand is ALWAYS in one pocket and all work is done with equipment that is verified OFF, and all HV circuits have been grounded to remove residual voltages. All jewellry should be removed as well.

Nice radio…. I just wish when you’re tuning the stations you’d stay on the stations longer….. thanks, great job.

Wow! It has been over 50 years since the last time that I touched a vacuum tube device - I worked in numerous repair shops during high school and college. Viewing this episode of "The Lab" was like stepping back in time. Plate voltages, choke coils and filter capacitors all came back - like it was yesterday. I really appreciated the method by which Paul troubleshoot this '37 radio. I would have got directly to the volume control with my probe (or touched a screwdriver to the center lead of the pot) to check for audio output. Checking the screen grid capacitor would have been somewhere way down on my list. Great video - keep up the wonderful work!

I once lived in an old house. If you touched the water faucet and turned the light on with the pull chain. You got shocked! Since then, when playing with old equipment, I always test chassis to chassis for any surprises

After the clean up I like how the tube covers were left as is Like she aged gracefully. Love your choice!

Your video's are enthousiastic, clearly spoken and understanable for a home and garden technician from The Netherlands:-) Keep up the good work.

I had problems fixing my tube radio but after i watched one of your videos i fixed it and it works great

Thank you for showing and teaching us about electronics. I worked on the MA1 system aboard the F-106 interceptor aircraft and it's a good to remember these things especially when you have a passion for radio and electronics. Thank you for imparting your vast knowledge of electronics to us.

Absolutely amazing. I wish I had a teacher like you while i was in school. Your diagnostic procedures are perfection. I love the detail in your explanation's. Please keep on doing what your doing. I'm a retired Automotive Master Technician .I've worked on everything from lawn mowers to Jet engine's. Radio's are my favorite hobby. I really liked the video of the Yaesu FT 1000 mp. Please more solid state repairs. Thank you....Jerold..From Houston Texas

The whole project....simply outstanding. Well done sir...well done.

Well, I wanted to see the full restoration and here it is .... great Job Paul; thank you for sharing this. It was great to see the Vedolyzer in action too.

Carlson's masterclass as always Cheapeau Paul

It looks so tidy with the modern caps installed. And it's hyper-sensitive. Exelent restoration. :)

Simply Amazing Please more videos !!!!

She's a beautiful radio. Awesome restore by Dr. Carlson

Thank You for using your old time Lab.Because thats all that I have and can afford.

Another great video. Love that receiver, and would love to own one. Keep up the great work.

Very good video excellent description of what is being done and how the circuit works, I would like more information on the capacitors type and size and how to pick the replacement type and size.

Awesome resto. Great to see the Vedolyzer in action ! So swell!

BIG thumbs up for these two restoration clips with elaborate explanation, show and tell :-D

Another great video Paul. The previous troubleshooting video was very informative as well. Thank you for your contributions to the hobby. You're one brilliant man!

you know more sensitivity less selectivity . great radio you got a gem.

It's pretty hard to believe but true that most of the dog bone resisters I have tested came out so close they never had to be replaced even in a 1937 Air King radio I had. The paper/wax caps and electrolytics do beak down over time the dielectric in the Electrolytics all seem to dry up over time. Very god troubleshooting and restoration video Paul. Thanks for sharing your expertise.

I can't wait to see a restore of a similar-era TV (even if there's no analog TV stations left, may need to restore one of those as well).

It still amazes me just how warm and full the sound is on these old valve radios compared to virtually every solid state radio I have heard, and this is on the AM band, which is not even classed as high fidelity.

As always a nice project with great results, I remember in the 1940’s hearing my father listening to the AM programs since that was the level of entertainment at that time! How times have changed.

Another great video! I have a 1930-34(not sure) Fada freestanding cabinet radio, which I added a small Bluetooth receiver inside of, and relays which switch between the old receiver and the Bluetooth, so I can listen to the old CBS mysteries, war of the worlds, and RU-vid. Purists would hate me but I didn't modify the radio in any way, except a few snipped wires.

Another great video that teaches me a lot. I don't do any electronic work as I'm late to the game at 67. However, I find this allows me to understand parts of the process. Keep up the great work.

I used to record music off AM many years ago. Unfortunately, my station-of-intrerest broadcast at 910 KHz, the first harmonic of the IF of 455 KHz! This resulted in a nasty beat frequency showing up when properly tuned in. So, I had to DE-TUNE the IF's up or down and re-tweak the oscillator so the dial tracked.

Thanks for the excellent video Paul. Your expertise in the field of electronics is second to none!

now that a cool radio

Very nice radio and as usual excellent restoration. It was fun going into the old time lab and seeing the vedolizer in action. Sometime when you are DX'ing late at night with that old radio it would be nice to to see some footage of that.

Excellent video..thanx U R THE BEST 👌

Mrister Carlsons lab your utube videos are awesome my friend 😅😅😅😅keep up the good work my friend

A nice click click switch that actually cuts the power and turns the thing completely off. Whoever thought that would become a rare luxury.

Great job. And I really love your vintage equipment

Superb content. Superb delivery. Superb talent. Thank you!

Wow, I'm excited to see the Vedolyzer in action!

Now that's one fully packed case! I wonder how hot it gets in there.

Excellent Thank you

You are not only a teacher you are a great master also

Very nice radio indeed, and lovely to see how the old-time equipment and instruments are not only working well but very accurate too! Thanks for these videos!

Thanks Paul! Nice restoration on a very nice little radio! Nice to see the Vedolyzer in action also!

Those FADA radios are so very well made , i enjoyed this resto alot. thanks.

Wow another good job done at Mr. Carlson's lab. Yes enjoy very much.

I enjoy your videos. I've been restoring radios for almost 40 years. It seems like your videos highlight chassis in remarkable condition. I'd like to see a video where you have to strip every component, clean/derust the chassis and start from scratch. It's a great process. Or fixing issues like crackling in the tuning cap.

I Love It! You do everything right. Learning so much about RF. Thank You!

Very good restoration 👍

Well done. Beautiful (safe to say) equipment. Nice to see the alignment techniques used when I started my career in Communications many (5) decades ago.( + 2nd IF) Real, hands on, engineering, New equipment and wireless digital technology are absolutely brilliant uses of the airwaves. I do not begrudge any of the modern gear but love to have lived through the growth of this vital technology. ( I confess to having some Strowger telephone exchange switches and three Electromechanical pinball machines plus three quadcopter drones...) Paul F. North Yorkshire, England xx

These are truly excellent videos Mr Carlson, even better viewing for me as i am an Amateur Radio guy myself !! 👍🏻😊

wow just amazing to restore a piece of history back to life.. thank you for your effort I enjoyed your video although it is long but worth watching it..

Now that is truly a jem of an antique radio! Great restoration.

The best channel of youtube

Awesome to see two of your restorations in active use!!! Thanks for this.

Great teaching. Thanks

Amazing job Mr Carlson's with the FADA as usual.. happy 2020 God bless and thanx for the wonderful experience..😎👆👌

When I was a kid my dad had a Telefunken radio, what I loved seeing was the back part as he turned it on. It had two Phillips tubes in one side that would flash glow before the actual filament warm up. The other tubes would just do their normal soft glow up. Later when I took the tubes to be tested the technician told me that initial flash was a characteristic only Phillips tubes had but didn't know what caused it.

Paul, another excellent job and one to be proud of. Thanks for taking time to capture the repairs, etc., and publish. All the best. Don

fantastic video. nice to see that you started using the old antique test gear. Much better than using your new fancy equipment.

THAT signal generator is beautiful..